Oblique sighed. “Alas, Queen, both his deformity and his muteness are accidents of birth. Like Magister Avail, he is necessary.” She paused, then explained, “He understands violence, yes, but that is not theurgy. His gift is of another kind altogether. We have books that only he can read. Only he dares.”

Only he—? Estie did not know what to make of that claim. She knew too little about the stranger forms of sorcery.

But she let the matter drop. The pressure of her real questions was rising in her. She needed to ask them.

“Thank you, Magister,” she said. “I have distracted you from more important concerns. Now please tell me.” She heard the note of urgency in her voice, but did not try to suppress it. “What do you know of the war? Has the Great God come? Has he attacked?”

She refused to ask, Is my husband safe?

She saw pain in Oblique’s eyes before the Magister looked away.

“Yes, Queen. The Great God Rile has come. I will speak of him.” She shook herself. “But first I must assure you that Amika has not been threatened. The strangers you encountered on your road, those that passed through the lands of the Nuuri— They have not struck at your people. Instead, they have crossed the Line River. We do not know how,” she admitted. “Until the devotee of Spirit warned us, we did not know to watch for them.”

Crossed the Line—? That should not have been possible. The bridges were guarded. But Estie could guess how it was done. If the fanged men had enough rope, and one man with the rope fought his way across the stiff current, any number of strangers would be able to follow him.

“Now the Farsighted watch,” continued Magister Oblique. “The strangers have gathered in the north of Belleger, hundreds or thousands of them. But they do not advance. We surmise that they are waiting for instructions from their Great God.”

Queen Estie allowed herself a moment of relief that her people had not been attacked. But only a moment. Almost at once, she asked, “And Belleger? The Bay of Lights? Have Rile’s ships returned?” She knew about the Great God’s scout-ships, nothing more. “Has the war begun?”

Oblique nodded grimly. “It has. Rile’s hosts have entered the bay, a great fleet of ships. There must have been a battle. For a time, a heavy storm blocked the Farsighted, and then the sun set. But when it rose again, they saw that King Bifalt’s forces had been defeated. His cannon had been destroyed. Many of his men were dead.